December 2013

December was a busy month. Busy getting Christmas ready for our two boys and getting the house ready for the new addition to our family. We enjoyed a quiet christmas at home with our kids. Quiet along with the banging of drums, army guys battling, Elmo keyboard and cellphone etc. The kids were really spoiled this year. 

Outing with my boys! Josh was catching some z's after working a grave so my boys helped me run some errands. Good fun!

Ez's jr jazz basketball team got tickets to see the Jazz vs. Lakers game. It was a fun night since he got to be there with a lot of his cousins and teammates. They were nose blood seats but good entertainment. Most of the starting line up for the Lakers were injured that night so they ended up losing to the Jazz. 

Ezias disappointed about the loss.

There were a lot of cute holiday treats floating around the office. I thought this was a really cute one.

Brothers at the Laker game.

Christmas Eve we decided to see the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point. Being 9 months pregnant I opted to drive thru to see lights instead of walking around temple square. We all enjoyed the lights. 

I took the day off work so I could watch Ezias sing with his kindergarten class in their Christmas sing-a-long. Every grade prepared a section. We stayed the whole time and watched his cousins perform too. It was a nice assembly and Ezias looked so handsome on stage!

Our stake put on a live production of the Little Town of Bethlehem. It was nice and reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas. You can tell a lot of hard work went in to planning this event.

And that's a wrap! 2013 was good to us. Looking forward to the adventures that lie ahead for this New Year.

Chillin Mode

Due to technical difficulties I have not been able to post blogs for the past few months. I have figured out a work around....but it's still not letting me do everything I want to. We've been thru some changes so we have some catching up to do. Here are some pictures before our lives started picking up pace:

Iosua chillin in the laundry basket...not sure who he is trying to call.

Tipping the basket so he doesn't a have to climb out...he can just roll out of the basket.

And here's my two big boys. Ezias just climbed on his dad....I didn't really think he would fall asleep but he did. Precious moment.

Then there's this new guy! He's just been chillin in my stomach where we will have to force him out via c-section some time mid January. Another Poli boy to add to the mix. I'm not sure how I feel about being so out-numbered, but we're very excited that our family is growing. 

Ez's Birthday

Ezias turned 6. He told us early on that he wanted to celebrate at Chuck E Cheese so that's where we went. I think Olaea and Josh may have played as much as the kids. I had to work so didn't have a lot of time to make elaborate plans but we still had good fun. Here's some proof:

His very own personal football cupcake!

Some birthday toys.

Some of his prize winnings from Chuck E. Cheese

Trying to fit the kids in the photo booth....one didn't make it.

Probably his favorite birthday present from his Uncle Olaea. He wears this thing to bed every night....except for when I forget to wash it. We love this kid!

First Day of School!!!

Watch out kindergarten! Ezias has started school.....finally....like he is still in class as I type this! He has a late birthday and missed the school deadline by 16 days so he had to wait until almost 6 years of age to start. Needless to say we've all been anticipating this day. I took a long lunch to accompany him to school. He kept saying he knows where his classroom is...but I insisted on walking him into his classroom. I did not get emotional today as I dropped him off. I was just really excited for him. However, my heart strings were tugged on last night as Josh gave him a father's blessing. It was so sweet. I peeked at Ezias during the blessing and he was acutally closing his eyes and sitting reverntly. My little boy is growing up! I really hope he likes his teacher....because she didn't really impress me too much. She wasn't as animated as I would like. Isn't that a requirement for kindergarten teachers?
Ezias has been sporting a rat-tail all summer thanks to his dad. I told him he could not enter school with that thing. So it came off last night. I should have taken a picture. Ezias really wanted to keep it but I refuse to give bullies a reason to target my son. He also goes to school with his cousins so I know he will have people watching out for him. So here are just a few pics before we took him into the classroom.

Ezias was already waiting for me outside as I pulled up from work. He was so excited and all smiles!

This boys gonna be a leader one day!

My boys!

I'm very excited to talk to him after school to see how his day went. Stay tuned for kindergarten tales by Ezias Poli!

Bitter Sweet Trip Home

We made an unexpected trip home to Missouri. Josh's Auntie, Blanche Amato passed away. Josh and his brothers spent a lot of time at the Amato house growing up and I am good friends with the family so we really wanted to be there to pay our respects. We were not looking forward to the long drive with 2 kids, especially since Iosua hates his car seat. It wasn't the smoothest but we traveled to and fro safely so we can't complain. We spent a lot of time with Josh's family while we were there. It was nice to see faces we haven't seen in years but such a sad occasion to bring everyone together. I failed to take pictures but I was able to steal some from facebook postings. Thanks family! The funeral services were beautiful. We all laughed and cried and listened to some heart-warming music.

At the cemetary

Pallbearers

Mama and Papa Poli

Ezias and cousins

We spent a lot of our time here at the Amato house. The house was stuffy with all the bodies but it was nice to spend time together. There was always tons of food and visitors coming in and out.

Our last day there we spent celebrating my mom's birthday! We made monkey bread, bbq'd and of course had cake and ice cream.

This yuma-licious cake was made by my nieces. Almond Joy cake. Almond Joy is my mom's fav candy bar. They're so thoughtful!

Iosua trying out Papa's tire swing for the first time.

He liked it!

I really love going home to visit. There is never enough time. Hopefully we can make it out again soon.

Pioneer Day

I love that Pioneer Day is a state holiday in the state of Utah. I also love that I work for the State of Utah and I get another paid day off in July.Some say that Pioneer Day is a bigger celebration then the 4th of July festivities around Utah. The only downside for me was that it fell on a Wednesday so I had to be at work bright and early the next morning....so no late firework show this year. But we kept busy most of the day celebrating our Pioneer Heritage during the day and Polynesian Heritage that evening.

That morning we went to the Pioneer Day Parade downtown. If felt good outdside since the sun was hiding behind clouds most of the time. Iosua was pretty excited at first and cheered along with the crowd.

Ezias enjoying his breakfast sandwich from McD's while watching the parade.

This is President Uchtdorf and his wife. I was so busy waving to him I almost forgot to take a picture. So here is his backside. If you squint and zoom in a few times you can totally tell it's him.

This is the PCC float. They were in Utah promoting their 50th year anniversary. In my opinion they had the best float and were the most entertaining. The float sprayed water from the whale's spout and their music was blasting as they had dancers on the float and on the street. Sigh....I would love to check them out in Hawaii.

Iosua got a little wrestless during the parade but he found yelling into the McD's cup very entertaining. He actually did this for a while too. Gotta love him!

Later that evening we went to the Polynesian Cultural Celebration. A few of my friends came so that made it even more fun. The evening was full of dances from the islands, music, laughter, and good island food. The kids might not look happy in the above photos....but they had fun!

Amanda and Iosua! I love how much my friends love my kids. Unfortunately I didn't get pics of Ashlee and Andrea who were also with us.

And this was just a random picture of Iosua that I thought deserved to make the blog. Pioneer Day was good to us this year. It was a fun-filled day for the Poli family.

Fox 13 News

On July 20th, Josh was on the Fox 13 morning news show. He volunteers as a trainer for the P.A.L.A. Speed Camp every summer. He is gaining great experience and knowledge from Pala who is the founder (and spouse of my cousin) of this non-profit organization. Josh went to school with a friend that landed her a job as a producer on the news. His friend thought the camp would make a great story so she asked if they would come on the show. Here is the link of their segment and a few pics of that day.

http://fox13now.com/2013/07/20/pala-speed-camp/

Looking around before they go on air. 

Brothers: Pala and Junior Vaitu'u